The End of an Era

Her Motivation: I think what kept me going was just to push my team to be the best that we could. At one point, we thought we weren’t going to make it to state because our scores weren’t getting to where they needed to be. Motivating my girls and motivating myself to work as hard as we could so we could get to state was probably the biggest thing.

Senior Year: Coming back this year I worked harder than I have any other year [and] just tried to make sure that the last year I’m doing the best that I can do and working as hard as I can. I wanted to make the best of [senior year]. I was injured last year for state, so I wasn’t able to give it my all. This year anything I felt was injured I just took care of and made it work.

Thoughts About Leaving: It makes me so sad, thinking [about] not being with my team next year and my amazing coaches. Getting to work with South and making that bond with another school has been amazing, and I’ve made more friends than I honestly thought I would. [It’s] really upsetting that I’m not going to be able to do [it] next year, but hopefully I’ll be back to visit a couple of their competitions.

Final Advice: I would say it’s one of the best sports you can get involved in, and anyone can do it if you want to try and work at it. As long as you just keep working hard and want to do it, you’ll do it no problem. And it’s just an awesome sport to be involved in, you’ll make so many friends and especially in high school it will help you bond with other people and just have a great experience. You’ll love every minute of it.

Luke Ehly – Soccer

Best Part of Soccer: I love the unity and the bond I have with all my teammates. I feel like something that only really, or especially, happens in soccer is that you feel [a] closeness with your teammates. I felt that way all my life playing soccer. I’m not sure what it is about it, probably just the kids that play it. I feel it’s the best sport that’s ever been created.

Funniest Memory: Sometimes, you just have to be there. But in fifth grade, my premier soccer team, the Strikers, had a dinner during one of our tournaments out of town. We kept pouring salt in each other’s water whenever someone on the team wasn’t looking. It got so intense that we put ketchup, mustard, meatball, macaroni, olive oil, salt, pepper, hot peppers and crayons in Connor Weiford’s water then paid him $5 to take a sip. After that, he left a trail of puke across the whole restaurant, and it was one of the funniest and grossest memories of my soccer career.

Final Advice: It’s no shame to get cut from any sport, and it’s a lot more painful to know you could’ve possibly made it and you didn’t even try. Yeah, you should go [out for soccer]. Fight through adversity.

Final Goodbye to Coach Kelley: Thank you for always believing in me. I would thank him for the encouragement, and how much he believed in our team even though there were teams that seemed like they could be so much better than us. He always pushed the idea, and was sure that we could be the best team in the state. We are the best team in the state.

Lance Meng – Cross Country

How XC Has Influenced Him: It’s influenced me in so many ways. It’s taught me to work hard. It’s taught me different aspects of working with your team, being with your coaches and accomplishing a common goal. It’s definitely taught me that hard work can pay off, and that you can accomplish your goals.

HIs Motivation: I just gave the season my all. I knew it was my last season so I knew this was it. [I] also want to represent my school well when I go out there and compete. East cross country has not been too good over the past few years, and that’s been my motivator to kind of change that and start a new era, per say. Yeah just going out there and doing my best and trying to compete with best of them out there — that’s what drives me.

Funniest Memory: I guess one stupid thing that comes to mind right now is that there was this sign outside of East that said “Beanfeed.” And it just became a joke of ours. It just said “Beanfeed” and there was an arrow pointing to the school and none of us knew what that meant and it was like a homemade sign or something. And I don’t know it just became a big joke around the team.

Final Goodbye to the Coaches: I would definitely thank them for everything they’ve done for me and for training me and teaching me. We as a team had the goal at the beginning of the season to make it to state and this year we had the goal of getting on the podium. We’ve done both of those. [The coaches have] really been great role models for us. They took us under [their] wing and taught us about running and even more than that. We have [coaches] ranging from people just out of college all the way up to the T. Michael Chaffee. They know a ton of things that we don’t and have just taught us a lot.

Jack Tyler – Football

First Started Playing: Freshmen year. I played soccer my whole life, and coming into freshmen year, I mean I’ve always wanted to play football because I’m a huge football fan and my brother played football, so freshman year I decided to give it a shot and it worked out well for me.

How Football Has Influenced Him: [It has made me a] better leader in life, better person just understanding of other people because football is a team game. If one person does something wrong, then nothing works. Just like in life: you’re working with people and they need to pull their own weight. You’ve got to be patient with people. I think that’s it.

Best Part of Football: I just love the bond you create with your teammates, it’s honestly like a brotherhood. That’s used a lot, but I mean you’re with them more than your real family so it’s really like a second family. I never imagined how fun it would end up [becoming] and [the] great connections I [would have] with my teammates.

His Commitment: Definitely takes a lot out of me. There’s weights class, then practice after school goes from two, two-and-a-half hours, every day. Also summer there were weights in the morning, practices and stuff so it definitely takes up a bunch of my time in the fall, but it’s definitely worth it.

Final Advice: These four years for football have gone by really fast and I can’t believe it’s already almost over. It’s been a hell of a ride, but it’s not over yet. We have some unfinished business to do and can’t wait to hopefully get another state championship.

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Caroline Heitmann

Senior, Head Copy Editor
Caroline enjoys running cross country and playing piano. She loves her three sisters and friends and is pretty much the life of the party. Her summer consisted of lifeguarding at Fairway Pool, and she is excited to be back on Harbinger for her last year. Read Full »